GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 5:4-10
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4 When all the elders of Israel came, the Levites lifted the ark. 5 They brought up the ark, and the tabernacle, and all the holy vessels that had been in the tabernacle. The priests (who were Levites) brought them up. 6 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled with him before the ark, began sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. 7 Then the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the House, which is the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. 8 The wings of the cherubim were spread out over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. 9 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the Holy Place that was in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. And there they are, to this day. 10 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
These verses allow the reader and his listeners to imagine what things were like inside the Most Holy Place; the Holy of Holies. First, let’s notice that the former tent, the tabernacle, was brought inside the temple of Solomon; it was not left outside, no longer used, like an abandoned car out behind the barn. It was brought reverantly into the temple: first the ark (at long last!), then the tent itself, rolled up just as it was in the days of Moses and Joshua and carried by the assigned families along with the poles, ropes, pegs, stands and other necessities. Then, along with the former tent, the former utensils that were now replaced. These things (the old bowls and censers and the old table for the bread and the old lambstand, and even the old tent pegs) were without a doubt placed carefully and reverently into a chamber somewhere in the new sanctuary.
If I had been there to offer my increasingly elderly wisdom to young Solomon, I would have advised that the old tabernacle and furnishings be kept in the rooms that would have been directly behind the Most Holy Place, like a kind of rearguard. (1) This would have given them a place of dignity and honor, to stand for the rest of the life of the temple next to the ark, just on the other side of the wall. (2) This would keep anything else or anyone else from using that same area (perhaps three chambers or one long room; we don’t know for certain). (3) It would keep those things easily accessible should it be required or desired for teaching purposes among the Levites and priests. (4) It would prevent them from becoming talismans or “holy relics” for the misunderstanding or the superstition of any of the lay people, which is almost always a problem in almost every generation (remember the abuse of the Bronze Snake in the days of King Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18:4).
Before we mentally enter into the Holy of Holies, the author does what had to be done physically before the High Priest could ever enter: He makes sacrifices. Sheep and oxen are butchered, and being told that there were too many to count only reminds us that our own sins are also too many to count. The blood flowed. The animals died. This was and is the price of sin, for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). But now that there has been a sacrifice and blood has been poured out on the horns of the bronze altar, our minds may enter into the Most Holy Place.
The Ark was set beneath the big statues of angels, the cherubim. The Hebrew text anthropomorphizes them a little bit, having the statues spread their wings over the Ark. Then there are the poles. It was the lack of poles that had gotten David into trouble after the ark had been returned by the horrified Philistines. The Ark was always to be carried; not given a ride on a cart. God had commanded Moses: “The poles are to remain in the rings of this Ark; they are not to be removed” (Exodus 25:15). If only eight men carried the Ark (and there could have been more– the cover alone was massive and solid gold) the poles would have needed to have been at the very least thirty feet, or ten cubits long. There was not that much room between the cherubim, which were at least twice the height of a man, and therefore twice the width of a man, probably with a base of some kind.
Our author says that one could see the poles in some way when in the Holy Place, but not outside the Holy Place. He makes a point about the “ends of the poles” being seen– perhaps bumping the end of the curtain?
There are two positions that the Ark may have occupied in the shrine. It was probably not put in diagonally. It might have had its long side facing forward toward the curtain. But in that case, with walls of cedar overlaid with gold, how could the ends (רָאשֵׁי) could be seen from the other room? This would only be possible of someone were in the Holy Place when the High Priest entered through the curtain, except the God commanded that “no one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out” (Leviticus 16:17). Of the three possibilities for the explanation of these words, none seems ideal:
1, The Ark faced left-to-right, and the High Priest simply reported later on that the poles could even be seen when he opened the curtain to enter. But this does not seem to merit the language of the text, reporting that “the ends of the poles could be seen…”
2, The Ark faced to the side, with the poles therefore jutting against the curtain and being easily seen, perhaps even up against the altar of incense that stood in front of the curtain. This does not seem satisfactory to many readers because it conflicts with their ideal mental picture of the interior of the room.
3, The Ark faced perhaps left-to-right, but that the poles, too long for the room, were removed (!) and set down next to the ark on the floor (perhaps to the right side) and that these actually stuck out into the Holy Place beneath the curtain or jutting against it. However, the poles were not to be removed, and although this seems to fit the text, it does not keep in step with the Law of Moses.
Finally, however, there is the usually unasked question of how the Ark was brought into the chamber, which was in a finished wooden chamber overlaid with gold and with two enormous golden angel statues. Playing on my kitchen table with chopsticks, candlesticks (for angels) and stacks of books for the walls, I found that it was nearly impossible to work the chopsticks (the “poles”) around to perpendicular to the curtain and at the same time have the ark “beneath the wings of the cherubim” (verse 7), remembering that we are told that the poles were “visible” (jutting out?) in the Holy Place. There is simply not enough room to maneuver the ark with such long poles so that it would be under the wings of the statues, unless it were sideways, that is, with its long edge facing (probably) south. For this reason, I think that the “sideways” ark answers all of the questions as well as the practical kitchen table experiment.
As for the contents of the ark? In the days of Moses, besides the Ten Commandments, there had been a jar of manna (Exodus 16:33; Hebrews 9:4) and the staff of Aaron that had budded (Numbers 17:10). But these are not mentioned again after the Philistines captured the Ark, and therefore the firm statement that only the Commandments were there must stand. A jar and a stick lay discarded and probably broken on the southwestern corner of the Valley of Aphek.
The glory of God cannot be grasped by sinful mankind. In the building of the temple, even the simple instructions about the virtually empty inner room, the Holy of Holies, leaves us with a question we cannot solve perfectly and to everyone’s satisfaction. Perhaps this, too, shows us that God is incomprehensible to man even in his utter simplicity. Therefore we bow before his holiness; “we honor his name and keep it holy and sacred, regarding it as the greatest treasure and most sacred thing we have, and praying, as good children, that what is already holy in heaven, may also be kept holy on earth by us and all the world” (Large Catechism).
How can I give to God my worship in my words and thoughts today? This is what we do in thanks to Christ when we read about the holy sanctuary, and when we ponder worship in our own lives. “God is spirit,” Jesus said, “and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 5:4-10 The ends of the poles of the Ark